Keyword: michael hoblock

Jockey Luis Saez has begun serving a five-day suspension instead of continuing a legal tussle with New York racing regulators over an alleged "careless riding" incident this summer at Saratoga Race Course.

The auction of 19 pieces of equine artwork by the financially ailing New York Racing Association has been canceled after Sotheby's auction house withdrew the sale under threat of legal action by the state government.

New York Gov. George Pataki, after a day of intrigue at the state Capitol over the leadership of the state's racing regulatory agency, has relieved Michael Hoblock of his duties as chairman of the state Racing and Wagering Board.

New York's top racing regulator said court action is still being considered as a result of the New York Racing Association's plans to auction off 19 pieces of artwork without first getting state approval.

New York state is threatening legal action against the New York Racing Association and the auction house planning to sell NYRA artwork because it claims it hasn't signed off on the sale of the equine art collection.

State regulators have denied a 2004 racing application for troubled Vernon Downs, a Standardbred racetrack in central New York. The Feb. 27 ruling by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board prohibits racing at the facility and keeps shuttered a recently completed video lottery terminal casino.

New York regulators Oct. 21 gave final approval to a new rule authorizing the testing of post-race samples for performance-enhancing erythropoetin antibodies. The New York Racing and Wagering Board said the testing would begin Nov. 1, which would make New York the first state to require the test.

State regulators in New York have begun enforcing what they say will be new safeguards to try to prevent the kinds of abuses that occurred in the recent Breeders' Cup Ultra Pick 6 betting scandal from happening again in the state.

Major changes are needed in state's pari-mutuel law to keep statutes in line with technological advances, New York's top racing regulator said Nov. 13 in the wake of the Breeders' Cup Ultra Pick 6 betting probe.

Permission has been granted for the first time ever in New York for an off-track betting corporation to run a racetrack. After years of battling industry opposition and eventually paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the critics go away, Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. was given approval by state regulators Feb. 27 to reopen Batavia Downs.

A federal appeals court has upheld the ability of regulators in New York to conduct unannounced searches of racetracks without warrants to investigate illegal equine drug use and other activities that may affect the integrity of racing in the state. But the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said the investigators from the state Racing and Wagering Board went too far in 1997 when they also searched dormitories used by grooms at Yonkers Raceway

Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. paid $2.5 million for shuttered Batavia Downs, but thus far has been unable to win legislative approval to open and operate the upstate New York Standardbred track.

The New York harness track raised some eyebrows in December when it said its primary option in the event of an emergency was to "say the Rosary," but it recently submitted a proper evacuation planand was licensed for 2001.